The problem with randomly acquiring new allies? They’d never had the chance to gain system access. It was something of a pain, not being able to split up and communicate with them, or trust that they wouldn’t get lost or would be able to properly coordinate an attack using a map.

  Massively pain—or it would have been, if Emilia weren’t simply an absentminded idiot.

  “You can give us system access?” Zyrex hissed as they rounded a corner, attempting to get away from Key’s crazed bodyguard. “Why didn’t you say so earlier?”

  ?I forgot, okay? I only gave access to one person, and actually, now that I’ve brought it up, I’m not even sure it’ll work?? Boundary had given her the ability to share his Risen Guard system access, and while she still technically had access to that system, Emilia wasn’t so sure she could still share it now that she also had the regular visitor system as well.

  Worth a try, at any rate, especially given they were going to need to split up to deal with Sk’lar. Key hadn’t been exaggerating when he said the man was more dangerous than he’d seemed during his fight with Boundary. Where that time he’d seemed inexperienced, the man now chasing them was skilled, his magic surging out of him in waves that Emilia knew she’d never be able to get through. She’d tried throwing one of her few remaining {Blood Needles} at him, but unlike with Livia, where her magic had been unable to stop the blood weapon, Sk’lar’s shadows ate her attack up.

  So, her one long-range weapon—not that she’d had a chance to try out the items she’d picked up since raiding Conrad’s body, another giant oversight on her part—couldn’t get through his defences, and neither she nor Hyr were inclined to try raising their own defensive barriers to attempt closer combat—not that Hyr was particularly skilled at hand-to-hand combat in the first place, instead preferring to use subtle magic to maim and murder.

  Hence, their options were to either make the way of the other group, and run away from the crazy Enclave member, or split up and try to hit him from three angles, hoping that at least one of them would get through. Unfortunately, while they could try to memorize a path and location, Emilia was terrible with both receiving and giving directions, and if something went awry, and they needed to meet somewhere else…

  ?Wanna take a risk?? Emilia asked, poking at her {Blood Ball} and wondering if Sk’lar’s shadows would hit its activation requirements or not. As she’s explained to the northerners while they travelled, each of them going over their abilities, gifts and most used weapons so they could better support each other, the thing was a bit sporadic in when it decided to work, but in general, anything that seemed liable to get her killed seemed to activate it. ?I can try giving you access while we run, but stopping and letting his magic activate might be the better option. I’ll have to let his magic hit me, though, and if it doesn’t work…?

  “I’ll have a defensive barrier ready, just in case,” Zyrex told her, his energy already beginning to cycle through his meridians with such force that he seemed to vibrate, the lines glowing faintly under his dark skin. “We just hope his attacks don’t kill instantly, and I’ll have time to protect us, if your ball doesn’t work.”

  The hy shrugged, like it was nothing. It sort of wasn’t, not with their time in their world quickly dwindling. Sk’lar could kill them, and it would potentially suck for this world—for the innocents still left within the Clarity City System. On the other hand, their entire mission could be a lost cause, their deaths meaningless in the grand scheme of things.

  “If we die, we die,” Hyr agreed.

  Together, they slowly let their pace fall, not wanting Sk’lar to realize something was up. For all that the man was powerful, Emilia wasn’t convinced he was the brightest person when he was in the right frame of mind. The man chasing after them was clearly not in the right frame of mind. He laughed, screamed, called for them to return so he could give her what she deserved.

  “Seriously, what did you do to that guy?” Zyrex asked as they rounded a corner that led to a four way intersection, and came to stop, hoping Sk’lar was close enough that he wouldn’t hesitate to attack them, given the chance.

  ?I don’t even know. I think he’s upset I gave one of his charges the confidence to say fuck you to his Enclave?? Emilia said as darkness bared down on them.

  It slid cool over her skin, cruel and evil and obsessive.

  Her {Blood Ball} hadn’t worked.

  Behind her, Zyrex’s energy swelled, ready to blow Sk’lar shadows away. Time seemed to slow—to morph and fray, a thousand torturous moments playing through Emilia’s head.

  Death. Blood. Screaming—always so much screaming. Didn’t people know their screams brought the monsters to their doors? Human instinct: scream, scream, scream. It didn’t matter how much they told people don’t make a sound, lest the monsters come to eat you, bite your head off, slit your gut open and slurp up your insides while you struggle to die.

  People still screamed, even soldiers, too overcome with fear to remember their training.

  Don’t scream. Screaming was death.

  Even the aethernet had screamed, when bits of the universe had died, its flesh carved away and stitched back up to remove the rot from it—to hold it and the monsters at bay, even if just for a mere blink of the all-seeing universe’s power and unending existence.

  Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

  Had the monsters come for it, too, when it screamed?

  It's babies, creations, blood ripped free and—

  The {Blood Ball} burst outwards, surrounding the three of them in pure darkness, devoid of life—a place not even the aether seemed to reach.

  “An emptiness.”

  Emilia and Zyrex turned to watch Hyr, the syn’s normally calm voice shaking slightly as they looked around.

  ?I was just thinking that,? Emilia told them. ?I didn’t notice it before, but now…? It could have been that something had changed in its composition, but she didn’t think so. Rather, somewhere in between her last time inside this place, when she’d burned Tobias’ array away, and now, her perception had changed. Hyr’s influence? Their words and explanations about how to read the universe seeping into her with so much ease that it was nauseating at times. The result of the world she had seen in the {Blood Glass}?

  “How long do we have?” Zyrex asked, stepping closer to Hyr, as though the syn could protect him from the emptiness. He rubbed his bare arms, Emilia copied the movement.

  It wasn’t that she was cold, but now that her attention had been called to the lack of life in this place…

  “We aren’t supposed to be here…” Hyr breathed out. “We should hurry.”

  ?Usually, it exits out once the threat is gone,? Emilia pointed out, although she was already attempting to activate her system sharing ability.

  Her mind clicked through the more complicated interface, searching for this combined visitor-Risen Guard system’s sharing ability. In theory, the ability should still be there—that was the point of combining the two systems, after all: to retain access to each of the system's features, independent of each other.

  That didn’t mean that combination was pretty, though. The raid platform had clearly been developed to include the ability to merge systems, or simply override one with the other. As she had been informed when she’d gained visitor system access: there had been complaints from heroes, due to certain aspects of the visitor system kinda sucking. Some parts were great, and Emilia especially appreciated how it behaved more like a Censor. Other parts were truly embarrassing shows of UI design, most notably that while all the Risen Guard system abilities still existed, they had been buried into the visitor system’s interface. This meant that while Emilia knew the sharing ability should exist, she had no idea where it would have been hidden inside the interface.

  Annoyingly, out of all the Censor abilities the visitor system had, the ability to easily search and query the system for information wasn’t one of them.

  “I do not think this dimension will falter when his magic ceases.”

  Emilia blinked through her interface, vaguely noting that Hyr was looking through the {Blood Glass}. She wanted to ask what they saw, looking into this world devoid of aether for clues about the future.

  Later—she’d ask later because as much as she wanted to believe the syn’s interpretation of what they saw and felt, it would really suck to waste time talking to them now, only to regret it when the {Blood Ball} collapsed.

  Click. Click. Swipe. Search.

  Fucking stars, where was it? It had to be there somewhere! It had—

  Emilia’s mind burned as she found and activated the ability, focusing by mutual agreement on giving Zyrex access first—Hyr could always use their ability to read the universe and the {Blood Glass} to supplement the system, if she was only able to give access to one of the northerners.

  Zyrex squatted, grimacing and clutching his head with one hand. Hyr continued watching the world through the {Blood Glass}, staring into the abyss.

  Given how intoxicating and addicting the things the {Blood Glass} showed could be, Emilia wondering if she should be concerned for the syn. It was one thing to view the future of a raid—of a world whose future didn’t really affect any of them. She had no idea what this strange world’s visions would reveal to them.

  ?Hyr—? she started to say, not sure whether she was about to ask if they needed help putting the blood item down, or if they were ready to get system access as well.

  It didn’t matter which. The moment she spoke, the syn let their hand fall. Golden eyes turned on her, soft but concerned.

  “My turn?”

  Emilia nodded, activating the sharing ability and hoping that there wasn’t something wrong with it—Zyrex still hadn’t gotten up, and while Conrad had admitted the process hadn’t exactly been pleasant, he certainly hadn’t keeled over in pain.

  Then again, perhaps Conrad wasn’t a good measuring stick. Emilia had a feeling someone could cut the man’s flesh and blood arm off, and he’d barely bat an eye. Just a vibe—and one she should know well, considering she already knew someone who had been all but been bisected during the war and just burned their gaping wounds closed and continued on as best they could.

  Vaguely, Emilia wondered if those two would get along. They could be crazy together. Then again, Conrad needed friends who would ground him, not encourage him to do insane shit like certain people she knew were wont to do.

  The syn didn’t squat like Zyrex, but their soft face did scrunch in pain. On her side, Emilia wasn’t convinced her head wasn’t about to explode—it was so bad that she’d only managed to get through one of her silly delivery game’s levels!—and she was pretty sure she’d earned herself a nose bleed.

  A drop of blood spattered across the ground, so, yeah. Nosebleed. Maybe she could scare Sk’lar with it?

  Actually…

  Whatever Hyr had seen in the {Blood Glass}, they’d been right: the {Blood Ball} didn’t contract until both of the northerners had their access to the Risen Guard system—unfortunately, the visitor system hadn’t decided to tag along for the ride—and had settled slightly, their eyes shifting as they looked over the system in silence.

  Then, the world cracked open. The northerners surged to the sides, escaping down hallways, while Emilia bolted straight, trusting her energy to keep her safe and hoping that Sk’lar would care more about attacking her than going after the others.

  Fortunately, for all that the man was clearly a sociopath—although Emilia wondered if he’d always been that way, or if it were more a result of however many trips to the labyrinths he’d taken—he was more the sort to want to directly torture his prey, rather than go after her where it really hurt. If he’d had the sense to go after one of the others instead, she likely would have handed herself over to him rather than risk the Enclave man getting a hold of them and doing stars knew what to that—Sk’lar definitely gave off torturer vibes.

  The man chased after her. He’d been close to whatever existed outside the {Blood Ball} when it activated—so close that when she rounded a corner and threw a handful of blood at him, half of it reached him.

  He screeched, rubbing at the burning blood that had splattered over his face, steaming and sizzling, smoke wafting off him and the air beginning to reek of cooking flesh.

  Gross, but also, a good time to run away.

  ?Catch me if you can~? Emilia called as she fully rounded a corner, waiting to make sure the man saw which way she was going and giving him a little wave before bolting down another turn, away from his fury—from the hideous shadow monster forming under the urging of his rage.